What do you see when you enter a city? Recently, we visited our Every Nation church in Taiwan. We saw the vibrant night markets, the transit innovation, and the beauty of the culture. It is easy to see a city’s beauty; it is much harder to see its brokenness.
In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul enters Athens—an intellectual and religious hub. While others marveled at the Parthenon, Paul saw a city full of idols. His response provides a blueprint for us today through three distinct movements:
1. Compassion: The Holy Disturbance
Acts 17:16 tells us Paul’s spirit was “provoked” (parōxyneto). This wasn’t the agitation of a “keyboard warrior” fueled by outrage; it was a holy disturbance that birthed redemptive initiative.
In our culture, we often default to cynicism or outrage. But outrage is a noisy fuel that burns out; compassion is the engine of the Gospel. As Ed Stetzer says, “You can’t be both outraged and on mission.” Sharing the Gospel begins with grief-filled love, seeing people not as “problems to avoid,” but as “sheep without a shepherd.”
2. Contextualization: Building Bridges
Paul didn’t start by tearing down temples; he started by looking for bridges. He moved from the synagogue to the marketplace, engaging both the religious and the secular. He even studied their poets and observed their altar “To the Unknown God” to find common ground.
To reach our offices, campuses, and neighborhoods, we must learn the language of the people. Contextualization means using cultural “on-ramps”—music, movies, or current events—to translate the truth of God without trimming it. We aren’t looking for walls to hit; we are looking for doors to open.
3. Courage: Confronting the Idols
Finally, Paul had the courage to preach Christ and the resurrection, even before the intellectual elite of the Areopagus. He didn’t just affirm their culture; he challenged their core idols.
Today, those idols often take the form of Power, Approval, Comfort, or Control. Real courage is naming these “functional saviors” and pointing people toward the only one who truly satisfies. Paul called for repentance—a reorientation of worship toward the Living God.
The Prayer of the Mission
Our mission begins with a change in vision. This week, let our ultimate application be a simple, radical prayer: “Lord, help me see worth, not weakness.” When we see the city through God’s eyes, the Gospel becomes unstoppable.
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